Yorkie bar ad star admits to killing terminally ill wife

Prosecution asks for Stuart Mungall to be jailed after the ‘mercy killing’ of his terminally ill wife A retired actor who found fame in the 1970s as the lorry driver in the Yorkie bar TV ads has admitted to killing his terminally ill wife. Stuart Mungall, 71, denied murdering Joan, 69, also a former actor. The prosecution accepted his plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He smothered her with a pillow at their home in Tooting, south London, on 3 December, in what he saw as a mercy killing, then took tablets to kill himself, the Old Bailey was told. The case was adjourned for sentencing, but the prosecution asked for a jail term because his wife – who suffered from the neurodegenerative Pick’s disease, leaving her unable to move and with a life expectancy of months – had not asked to die. The judge told him: “You took the law into your own hands and you took a life in doing so.” Mungall was suffering from depression as he struggled to care for his wife of 43 years. He thought he saw an “expression” in her eyes, “like an animal who needs to be put down and cannot say it”, the court heard. He told police: “She’s not in pain any more. She was in such pain last night. Doctors say do this and that but they cannot make it better, so I made it better.” Mark Dennis, QC, prosecuting, said that Mungall’s wife told a nurse the day before her death that she was “taking it all in her stride”. The couple, who ran a garden centre after retiring from acting, were said to be devoted to each other. Despite being housebound, mostly bedridden and almost entirely dependent on her husband, Joan remained mentally alert and adopted a “realistic and sanguine approach to her condition”, said Dennis. “There is no suggestion that his wife wanted to end her life prematurely, nor had she encouraged the defendant to act as he did.” Mungall, who appeared in Casualty, The Bill and other television series, was said to have shunned offers of help in looking after his wife, who had worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and was a friend of the actor Jane Asher. She did receive some medical support at home but Mungall had failed to accept his wife would need palliative care at a local hospice, the court heard. He developed a depressive illness that led him to “snap” on that morning, said Dennis. The night before the killing, Mungall told his brother he was “thinking about placing a pillow over her face” but after an hour-long conversation Mungall’s brother did not think he would “do anything silly”. At 3pm Mungall made three phone calls to his brother, daughter and a close friend, to admit what he had done. “This was a deliberate killing. It was not assisted suicide, nor did it even come close to that,” said Dennis. “There is no evidence she asked that morning to be killed or asked the day before to be killed. “The most the defendant has said is that morning he looked into her eyes and she gave a look that he took to mean he should do what he went on to do. “He had chosen to do what he did. No doubt in his own mind doing what he thought in his state was best for him and for her. He has therefore cut short a life.” The prosecution asked for a sentence of less than one year’s imprisonment. Mungall had served the equivalent of six months in custody before being granted bail. Adjourning sentencing until 23 September Peter Beaumont, the recorder of London, said: “I am not making any promises but I want to explore every angle.” He told Mungall: “You present a difficult sentencing exercise because you took the law into your own hands and took a life in doing so.” Miranda Moore QC, defending, said: “He took the life of the woman he loved.” After his wife’s death, Mungall told a friend: “At last Joan is out of pain and free from it all.” Crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.